Primeval (Werewolf Apocalypse Book 2) (40 page)

She twisted the key again and the engine stammered to life, loud in the confines of the cabin. Michael cheered, hugging her. She pushed him away and rushed to the deck of the boat, grabbing her long pole as she passed it.

Sandy screamed as the Lycanthropes reached the dock next to the boat. She was overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. There were too many; they would overrun the deck of the boat and slaughter everyone in her group.

Burns shoved at the wooden dock with his pole, and Nicole did the same on her end of the boat. The vessel crept away from the pier, then it was pushed back a bit by a wave, heading toward the waiting werewolves.

“Michael!” Nicole screamed as a Lycanthrope leapt onto the deck of the boat. “Get this crate moving now!”

He grabbed the thing that looked like a gearshift and adjusted it like he was driving a car. The boat jerked and jolted, sending Sandy forward on her hands and knees on the deck and nearly tipping Burns into the river. The boat moved a few feet backwards, and Michael realized he had it in reverse. It retreated toward the pier.

A second Lycanthrope jumped over the water onto the forward deck. Nicole swiped at it with her pole, and the beast ducked. The metal passed harmlessly over its shaggy head. It roared, leaned forward until it was on all fours. She swung again, this time making contact with the creature’s slavering jaws, knocking out several fangs. The teeth skittered across the deck, and the beast turned back to her, blood and drool dripping from its mouth.

She used the pole to shove it backwards to the edge of the deck, and it windmilled its arms for a moment before falling into the river. It sank in an explosion of bubbles.

Burns was battling with the monster near the cabin. He poked at the beast with the sharp end of the metal subway pole, opening the creature’s tough hide in several places, but it kept coming at him, swiping at him with its black talons. Meanwhile, John crept into the cabin beside Michael.

Another beast leaped, landed on top of the roof of the cabin with a thud that startled Michael. He grabbed the gearshift and moved it into the next position.

The
Marion M
lurched to a sudden stop by the pier before creeping away slowly from the long wooden structure. The creature perched atop the cabin fell from its position and tumbled to the deck on the other side of Burns.

Another monster hopped onto the boat. And another. And another until there were six of the beasts on deck.

The little freighter chugged slowly away from the pier, belching black smoke from the pipe above the cabin.

Burns took advantage of the sudden braking of the boat and shoved his first nemesis into the river between the pier and the back of the boat where it was crushed between a pile and the left side of the
Marion M
. He spun and faced the one that had fallen from the top of the cabin. It was trying to stand, its back right leg obviously broken. A white bone stuck from its dark fur. Burns brought his pole down on the exposed bone, shattering it. The beast screeched in agony, and clutched at the crippled leg. This gave the general enough time to swing the pole upwards and bring it down full force on the Lycanthrope’s skull. One of its eyes shot out from the socket. The top of its head flattened, and there was a terrible crunching sound. Bits of brain and blood squirted from the thing’s ears. Heaving once, it stumbled drunkenly to its side on the deck, still and dead.

Burns looked to the prow where Nicole was swinging her pole like a kendo stick and bashing one Lycanthrope while another stalked up behind her. A long rope lay across the deck, and the creature had its feet on the cord.

Sandy had slumped down next to the cabin, her own makeshift weapons forgotten, but she noticed the rope just as the creature behind her girlfriend stepped upon it. Grabbing the end, she yanked the rope as hard as she could, and it slid out from under the beast’s bare foot, giving it the rope burn equivalent of a hot foot. The creature howled, raised its injured foot, and hopped comically on the other. Burns took advantage of the thing’s imbalance and used his pole like a Louisville Slugger, smashing the creature upside the head. It fell over, tumbled to the edge of the deck where it grabbed a wooden rope-hold and stopped its somersault into the river.

One creature rushed toward the window of the cabin, going for Michael and John. The homeless man was trying to steer the boat out of the area of the pier and didn’t see the beast until it burst through the window, its long arms reaching for his face. He stepped back, pulling on the gear, and the boat shuddered as it began to move faster. The creature was tossed forward, landing halfway through the shattered window. A long, sharp piece of glass went through the Lycanthrope’s belly, securing it in place. It still swiped at the air as Michael took another step back. He felt the wall of the cabin behind him. He wanted to steer the boat, but the creature was lying right above the controls, impaled on the glass from the window. Even though it was bleeding profusely, it still tried to get at him.

Then Michael’s back hit the wall, and he felt something beside him. Turning his head, he saw a fire extinguisher and a fire axe encased in a glass panel on the wall. The glass had words written upon it – “Break in case of emergency.”

“Oh, hell yeah,” Michael said, smashing the safety glass with his elbow and retrieving the axe.

His first assault on the beast removed the thing’s right arm. His second chopped off the creature’s left arm. Blood gushed over the controls from the monster’s severed limbs, and it writhed like a fish on a hook, trying to extricate itself from the glass.

Michael’s third swipe decapitated the creature, and it ceased its struggles. He moved back to the controls, maneuvering the boat into deeper water away from the pier.

John had moved to the back corner of the cabin, his eyes wide at the savagery of Michael’s assault on the beast. His shoulder and leg were hurting him, throbbing with pain, and he was suddenly awash with exhaustion. He found himself an unwilling audience, unable to participate in the defense of the
Marion M
. He could only watch and grow weaker by the moment.

Nicole had shoved one creature into the water, watching in fascination as it tried to swim but sank under the weight of its upper torso.

Beside her, the monster that Sandy had tripped with the rope was clamoring back to its feet on the front of the deck, and Nicole went for it.

As the
Marion M
chugged away from the pier, several of the beasts made attempts at leaping onto it, but they all splashed into the river, dropping beneath the surface in a flurry of claws and snapping jaws.

Michael took the bloody controller in his hand and guided the boat out to the middle of the river. He looked back and saw the city he loved, the city where he’d lived his entire life. It was on fire, smoke belching into the sky. The skyline was unrecognizable. So many buildings had crumbled or been knocked down by other fallen structures that it rendered the whole thing foreign to him. From the flames of the city, hundreds, maybe thousands of the Lycanthropes were fleeing toward the outer fringes. Many were on the pier, crawling over each other in an attempt to get someplace safe, away from the fire that terrified them into some antediluvian state of vestigial terror.

Burns swung his pole at the Lycanthrope near him, missed, and the creature batted the weapon away. He lost his grip, and the pole flew out into the water. The creature turned its massive head and seemed to grin at him.

Michael saw this, as did Sandy from where she sat exhausted on the deck in front of the cabin.

Nicole hit the beast she was fighting with the pole. It lashed out at her, missed, and sank its claws in the deck.

Beneath it, something awoke at the intrusion of the claws.

Michael grabbed the axe and tossed it out the window at Sandy, who watched as it fell next to her. He shouted, “Help General Burns!”

Nicole kicked the creature in the side as it tried to free itself from the deck. It pulled hard, leaving three of its claws in the wood of the deck. It raised its bloody paw and swiped at her. She backed away, praying none of the drops of blood from its torn claws touched her. As soon as it finished its attack, she beaned it with the metal pole, and it stumbled backwards a few steps.

Sandy reached for the axe as Burns, weaponless and facing a seven-foot-tall roaring beast, kicked a roundhouse into the monster’s chest. It fell back a few steps, then rushed him. He ducked backwards under the creature’s long claws, felt the breeze as they swept by his face. He arched too far and fell onto his back, legs bent under him.

Nicole pounded her adversary several times in the chest. It grabbed the end of her pole and twisted it, trying to wrestle it from her grasp.

Michael drove the freighter farther into the center of the river. The water was choppy, but he kept his grip on the shifter. It felt good under his hand, like he was made for driving this little boat.

“We’re actually doing this, buddy,” he called to John behind him. “It’s gonna work.”

John thought he heard something beneath him – a scratching, rustling noise like dead leaves rubbing against each other. Glancing down, he noticed a trapdoor leading down into the hold of the
Marion M
. The door was opened, the lid hanging by a rusted hinge.

When he saw what was making the noise, he screamed and slammed the lid to the trapdoor shut. It groaned on its hinges, but it closed, and he sat on top of it.

“Michael,” he said.

“I’m busy.”

“You’d better look at this.”

He popped open the lid for a moment, just long enough for the homeless man to see into the hold.

Meanwhile, Sandy had grabbed the axe and shouted, “Burns! Over here!”

Burns stepped aside as the Lycanthrope rushed at him, stretching out a foot and tripping the beast. It tumbled end over end, heading for Sandy. She saw the creature unroll itself and glare at her with its awful yellow eyes. With a scream, she raised the axe over her head, using both hands on the heavy instrument.

The monster growled and ran at her.

Nicole gave a final push, sending the monster she was fighting into the river. It sank out of sight, and she turned, ready to take on the last Lycan left on deck.

“Burns!” Michael yelled. John remained sitting on top of the trapdoor, keeping it closed with the weight of his body, but he was beginning to feel something push back.

The monster on deck loped toward Sandy as she brought the axe down with all her strength. It caught the creature between the eyes, splitting its skull down the center until two halves were dangling at the neck. Its brain fell from its smashed cavity and plopped to the deck. The axe remained embedded in the beast’s bifurcated head. Sandy let go and fell backwards away from the monster. She started screaming uncontrollably, shaking and watching as the Lycanthrope dropped dead to the wooden planks.

“Burns!” Michael shouted even more emphatically.

The general made certain there were no more living Lycanthropes on deck. He quickly removed the axe from the last one’s head and rolled it into the water. He moved to the cabin.

Nicole hurried over to Sandy, who was still shaking. Her teeth were chattering, and Nicole thought she might have gone into shock. She rubbed Sandy’s arms, trying to warm her up. She could feel the gooseflesh beneath her fingers.

“You’ll be all right,” she said to the nonresponsive woman next to her. “We’re getting away right now. Everything’s gonna be all right.”

Remembering the flare gun, Nicole withdrew it from her belt and fired it into the dark night sky. The deck lit up in a burst of fiery red light. Nicole knew if Tommy Hemmer didn’t see the flare and follow its signal to their location, he would never find them.

“What is it?” Burns asked Michael as he entered the cabin.

“Anyone look in the hold before we took this rust bucket?”

“Of course not. Who had time?”

“John, show the general,” Michael said, and the reporter moved off of the trap door.

A humongous rat poked it head out and gave a squeak when John resumed his prone position. The rat’s head was crushed, and it fell back into the hold.

“Holy shit,” Burns said.

“There are hundreds, maybe thousands of these buggers down there. I looked and they were crawling all over each other, eating things. Looked like there were skeletons down there, stripped off all their flesh,” John explained.

“Then I suggest you stay on top of that trapdoor,” Burns said. “You think they can get out?”

As if in answer, several of the giant rats started scratching at the hidden door. The men heard them gnawing at the wood that separated them from their prey. Their incessant screeching grew louder, more frenzied.

Burns raised his eyes to the sky and said, “Hemmer, where in the hell are you?”

12:06 a.m.

The
Marion M
rested in the center of the East River, bobbing a little on the choppy water. The moon was only a small orange slice, but it cast a ghostly blue light upon the scene. Behind the river, New York City burned.

On the boat, Nicole cradled her girlfriend in her arms, stroking her blond hair and muttering soft words to her. Sandy had stopped shaking, and that was a good sign, but she remained quiet, silently shedding tears.